Arts and Humanities in Higher Education: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, v6 n3 p237-254 2007

Academic hospitality is a feature of academic life. It takes many forms. It takes material form in the hosting of academics giving papers. It takes epistemological form in the welcome of new ideas. It takes linguistic form in the translation of academic work into other languages, and it takes touristic form through the welcome and generosity with which academic visitors are received. These forms intersect each other and may co-exist at any one time. In the midst of the different forms of academic hospitality other matters surface. What is at stake when we give and receive academic hospitality? With travel being increasingly commonplace in academic life what forms of welcome and of hosting are emerging? Who is welcomed with open arms and who is not? What are the proper limits of academic hospitality? What of the stranger in our midst? What is the language of hospitality? What of virtual academic hospitality? What are the rules of the ceremonies of academic welcome? And what of the academic guest? How might we understand the modes and forms of academic hospitality? This article examines recent theories of hospitality and academic life in order to assess the potential, the rules and the limits for hospitality in an academy subject to rapid change and movement of ideas, bodies and space.